Mackinac Center Official Says Vast Change in Schools is Gaining Speed

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free market/limited government Midland "think tank," is working to
educate the public on the merits of school choice. This initiative would allow
the use of public funds to educate all children, using tax dollars no matter who
delivers the service. The movement is described as "unlimited school choice"
and is modeled after the nation's higher education system.

Vouchers and tuition tax credits for parents, which would, in effect, provide public funding for private and religious schools, are
the flash points in this fiery debate. A court decision favoring universal
public funding of education would drastically change the K-12 landscape and,
potentially, the shape of American society.

Brian Carpenter, director of leadership development for the Mackinac
Center for Public Policy, speaking recently at the Rotary Club of Bay City, says
a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court will impact this question.

The case, Joshua Davey vs. Gov. Gary Locke of the state of
Washington, and state education officials, is on appeal. It challenges a
Washington law that denies a state-funded college scholarship solely because of
the student's decision to pursue a degree in theology.

Critics of public K-12 education in this country have long asserted
that something is structurally wrong with the system. The problem, according to
one view, is that many parents are not fully involved in the education of their
children. That leads to a variety of ills befalling public K-12 education, from
low achievement to high dropout rates, which drastically affects the fabric of
American society.

Advocates of change in education now are charging that public
education policy is fundamentally "un-American," unconstitutional and dangerous
because only "the state" is allowed to define the truth.

The Davey appeal points to the First Amendment, which states:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Attorneys for Davey, from the American
Center for Law and Justice, of Mobile, Ala., and Virginia Beach, Va., argue:
"Thus, the state may neither favor nor disfavor religion. A law targeting
religious beliefs as such is never permissible."

Carpenter noted that in the past decade charter schools have moved
K-12 education closer to "deregulation and freedom from administrative
controls." A decade ago Michigan was the eighth state to allow charter schools;
since then 27 other states have followed suit. About 4 percent of Michigan's 1.7
million K-12 students are now educated in charter schools, according to
Carpenter.

"All parents should have the power to choose the best education for
their children," says Carpenter, calling unlimited school choice "perhaps the
most significant trend in public education."

The Mackinac Center seeks to improve education through free-market
competition in schools, he notes. Proponents of this view have long pointed to
the higher education system, which allows the student to choose any institution
no matter what the philosophical orientation. The prime example of how this
works is the educational benefits granted by the military, known generically as
the "G.I. Bill."

Carpenter calls a 2002 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court allowing
vouchers for low-income parents to educate their children in Cleveland, Ohio,
"the most significant since Brown vs. Board of Education," which dictated an end
to school segregation by race. Six states offer educational vouchers in some
form, he said. "Significant research indicates this will raise the performance
of all schools," said Carpenter. Public attitudes are beginning to change from
the grass roots, he added.

The idea of the state defining truth, which came about when
Massachusetts educator Horace Mann established education as a central function
of government, has caused trouble from the beginning, according to Carpenter. A
basic problem comes because children are assigned to schools on the basis of
where they live. This is not only unfair because of the uneven quality of
schools in various neighborhoods, but also inadvertently sends the message that
the involvement of parents is not that important, he said. "We need to restore
the incentive principle," Carpenter said.

Since public education was a "generic amalgamation of Protestant
doctrine," Roman Catholics were discriminated against, he observed. "The
prevailing world view was Protestant and no other was taught at taxpayer
expense," he explained. Social acceptance of bigotry resulted in violence like
the Philadelphia Bible Riots in the 1870s and caused Catholics to form their own
schools.

Speaker of the House James G. Blaine, onetime presidential
candidate, proposed the so-called "Blaine Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution to
prevent tax dollars from being under the control of any religious sect. The
amendment was not adopted but was included in the constitutions of 14 states
after 1875.

Michigan was not one of them. But our state’s "Council Against
Parochiaid" in 1970 won voter approval for Article 8, Section II of the Michigan
Constitution, which has become, in effect, our Blaine Amendment, said Carpenter.

"It is not in our best interest to have the state say what the
truth is," he asserts. "It is the inherent right of free people to answer that
question themselves."

It's impossible to separate the worldview from the academic view,
not only in education but also in other vital questions such as the origins of
mankind, human sexual orientation, art and the environment, he said.

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Note: Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay
City Times. His article appeared as a feature story on MyBayCity.com on
Thursday, Sept. 18.